


Wrong, wrong, wrong

by ILookDaftWithOneShoe



Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel 616, New Avengers (Comics)
Genre: M/M, Meta, Spoilers for Avengers #29, Spoilers for New Avengers #18
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-16
Updated: 2014-05-16
Packaged: 2018-01-25 00:27:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1622411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ILookDaftWithOneShoe/pseuds/ILookDaftWithOneShoe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>Maybe it didn't now either. Tony's way forward was the only real way forward, but perhaps at the cost of their souls.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>They were both wrong.</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wrong, wrong, wrong

**Author's Note:**

  * For [laireshi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/laireshi/gifts).



> My first work for the Avengers comic series (though not my first for 616).
> 
> Personally, I both blame and thank iloome for getting me into this. So thank you, darling.
> 
> After reading Avengers #29, I just really felt like writing this little thing.

Tony was in the wrong.

Tony always seemed to be in the wrong, even when he was in the right. He'd developed somewhat of a reputation for it during his time as the director of SHIELD. He'd been on trial for doing something wrong and had then done the wrong thing in the middle of it so well people took it as the right thing. It probably was the right thing, from some sort of perspective; his perspective, mostly. Tony's moral compass pointed too sharply to magnetic North, leaving no room to go around obstacles like the human cost and the median moral path. He was sharply practical before idealistic.

And as such, he'd lied to Steve repeatedly and built the weapons and done the unthinkable. But it had been for the greater good that Tony saw better than anyone.

So when he'd been cold and villainous with Steve, playing the part like only the distrusted and wary Tony Stark could, he'd known he'd get hurt. He'd wanted it, on some level. Steve always reined him back, a small gesture for a small thing, a big gesture for a big one. As it turned out, the only gesture big enough for what Tony had done was a blood-bursting punch in the face. It felt good. It felt like he deserved it. He did deserve it.

Steve was in the wrong.

Steve always seemed to be in the right, the shining beacon of morality and Doing What Is Right due to a firm grounding in idealism and a moral compass that pointed true North instead of Tony's magnetic. Doing the easy thing and the right thing don't often cross over, but Steve always went for the latter, and encouraged everyone around him to do the same just with his goddamn posture.

But Steve's firm beliefs made saving the Earth nigh on impossible so long as he was around. The mind wipe was cruel and painful for everyone - especially the man he'd called brother half a minute earlier - but without it, the cost could have been so much greater than the already cracked and twisted friendship that was being offered up.

And besides, Steve might've pointed the finger at that so-called brother for reforming the Illuminati, but _it takes two to tango, darling, and you wouldn't have been mindwiped if you hadn't reformed it there with him._

And so Tony told him that the first person to snap from the Illuminati was Steve himself, and in many ways, he was correct. 

In the periphery, it seemed like everyone else was wrong too.

T'Challa had failed himself and his people on so many levels. There was only one way forward - Namor's death - and he couldn't bring his hand to do it.

Namor's sin was nothing so human. His was that he had no inclination to apologise to anyone for anything in particular.

The Illuminati should've been keeping their fingers out of it. So presumptuous and pretentious to assume that they or anyone else had the right to decide what was best for Earth. People had tried that in the past. World Wars had been fought over it.

But all of those smaller issues - not smaller in practice or theory, as the fate of the world hung on them, but smaller in improbability - seemed like nothing, seemed to shrink to the background as Steve realised how betrayed he really felt by Tony's actions.

He'd been lied to. Twice. And mind-wiped. And Tony was standing there in front of him, unapologetic - though his face seemed a little too rigid for that to be the whole truth or even a fragment of it - and just asking for Steve to do something to let out the anger and frustration he felt.

Which was when his fist crashed into Tony's jaw. But it wasn't enough.

No wonder Thor had brought backup. Steve could feel too much anger bubbling up poisonously, anger at his blood brother or shield brother or whatever Thor called what Tony was to him. It was hard to know. They were close, always had been, and that was it.

It was like Civil War again. Friendship had dissipated among conflicted social views and Steve wanted to do terrible things that wouldn't normally come to the forefront of his mind just to get his point across. But the fate of the world hadn't depended on their squabbles back then.

Maybe it didn't now either. Tony's way forward was the only real way forward, but perhaps at the cost of their souls.

They were both wrong.


End file.
